[manjaro-dev] the redesign

[kendell clark]

hi all
I've just finished reading the email discussion on the redesign of the
forum. I can't really comment on the look of the forum since I haven't
been on it since it was changed. I have a couple of ... not really
comments, since I"m hardly the person to tell someone who can see what
looks good, but rather what I have observed about the world around me. I
would suggest integrating the forum with social media. Not just facebook
and twitter, but mediagoblin and gnusocial, and ... is pump.io still
around? The point is to cover all the bases, so that anyone who's on one
of those networks can "like" "follow" whatever the term is to posts, and
maybe, if you guys think it's a good idea, allow someone to stay
connected to the forum if they're logged into one of those networks and
allow them to post with a special keyword. I'm not sure what that might
be, but maybe @manjforum or something? Again, I don't know if all of
this is even possible, but that's one suggestion. Another would be a
really good system for people, both those being helped and those doing
the helping, to indicate whether an answer is good, helpful, not a good
one, etc. That way a person can, just by glancing at the forum, get an
idea of whether his question has already been asked and answered. I read
the initial poster's comments and while I don't agree with most of them,
he does have some points. You want a forum to, yes, be social but also
to solve problems users or developers are having.  He said the forum
looked "childish". I don't know since I can't see it, but you guys have
always given me the impression that manjaro is a very serious linux
distro and everyone I've met who works hear is passionate about what you
do. All I want to add is that you should try to put all of that passion
into the forum, to convey this to visitors, if that's possible. My last
suggestion would be to use completely free as in freedom forum software
to power this thing if at all possible. It sort of sends a bad message
if a linux distro that purports to be open source and make linux easy to
use, uses a proprietary thing to manage their forum. Again, before I get
yelled at, I have no idea what you guys use you could be using something
open source already, just thought I'd point that out.
That's my two scents, I'm no expert. Now to make some coffee.
Thanks
Kendell Clark